Miracle
by beastfan
Summary: Just a plot bunny I needed to extract. I looked at the "7 Years Later" and the age of Lily, and came to the conclusion she was already pregnant when the events in the finale happened. Not my best work, so no flaming, please.


**This has been bouncing around in my head since the finale. After checking, I found that gunshot wounds can be treated successfully in pregnant women. And a pregnancy test is SOP with women of childbearing age, especially if they are non lucid. I know I need to finish "Ripped", and I have been working on it. I'm having trouble "hearing" the dialogue. Hopefully this little exercise will help. Please don't flame!**

 _ **Miracle**_

It was dark, as usual, but something was different. It was cooler, sort of. And loud! Muffled sure, but it's louder than normal. People were - yelling. What was happening?

Gradually the darkness lightened slightly. Odd. Soon another presence made itself known. It was a woman, a woman with kind eyes and a pretty smile.

"Who are you?"

"You would call me Nana."

"Nana?"

"MmmHmm," she responded. "I'm your mother's mother."

"Oh. Mama doesn't know about me yet."

"No, she doesn't. But she would love you," she said as she sat and took the child into her arms.

"Why is it getting colder, Nana?" she asked, a shiver running through her small frame.

"Well, sweetie, Mama is hurt," she whispered.

"Bad?" the child asked softly.

"I'm afraid so, sweetie. That's why I need you to be strong, okay? I want you to hold on to Mama's heartbeat. Okay? Just hold on!"

"Nana? I'm getting really sleepy."

"I can tell, but that's alright. The doctors are trying to help Mama," she told the girl, placing a kiss on the top of her head as she rocked her gently.

"Will you be here when I wake up? Please?"

"Sure, baby. You can count on it."

"Let's get blood drawn, run the usual," the doctor clipped to the nurse as they readied Kate for emergency surgery.

By the time they got her to the OR, the lab results were back. A unit of O- blood was already hanging, but now they were able to pull her specific blood type. The surgeon, already gowned and gloved looked over the report, his eye getting caught at one line in particular.

"Damn! Well. That makes things interesting…"

The pregnancy was, of course, high risk. She had a team of specialists watching every step of the way. Her Ob-Gyn, the surgeon, pain management, physical therapist; she practically lost track of them all. Thank goodness she had a support team in her family, blood, extended, and adopted, to help her with her recovery.

Multiple ultrasounds tracked fetal development as well as an amnio to check for developmental issues. All the tests showed the little girl was developing normally.

In due time, Lily Johanna Castle joined her big sister Alexis as the second Castle daughter. She quickly became the darling of her family, all the more so that her very existence was a miracle. Kate's doctors couldn't explain how the girl had managed to survive the trauma her mother had experienced and come through so healthy, if on the lower end of normal weight.

Rick was walking a cranky baby while Kate took a shower. He found if he raised her onto his shoulder and bounced a little as he walked it seemed to ease her stomach. He noticed she calmed more when he walked by his office "wall", but just attributed it to the family photos and knickknacks catching her attention and distracting her for a few moments. Still, he would stand and let her look over his shoulder for hours if it made her feel better. Anything for his newest

little angel.

It was a Saturday evening. Kate was back at work. Finally. She was careful to keep fairly regular hours and let her detectives go into the field while she oversaw the various teams' casework. She had had to go in for a few hours this afternoon so her father was picking up Chinese on his way over, saying it would be more relaxing for all of them not to cook.

Kate, in yoga pants and t-shirt, sat on the couch with a now 8 month old Lily on her lap. Rick got up at her father's knock and greeted him warmly, taking the huge bag of food (obviously designed for leftovers) to the kitchen to start sorting cartons, plates, and such. Jim seated himself on the couch, a canvas tote bag at his feet, before taking Lily from Kate.

"Dad, what have you found now?" Kate asked with a grin, knowing her father was going through a storage locker that hadn't been touched much in the past 15 years or so. He loved to share his finds with her.

"It was in the bedroom closet, thank you very much," he quipped with a grin of his own. "Way in the back corner of the shelf. If I hadn't been on a stool cleaning it off I never would have seen it," Jim told her before handing Lily back to her mom and pulling out an old photo album.

"Oh, no. I think I know which one that is," Kate moaned dramatically into her hands. Soon Rick had joined the fun, sitting on the other side of his father-in-law as he turned the pages full of photos of Kate as an infant. Jim had been right; Lily did have her mother's looks as a baby. It was something about the eyes…

The conversation came to a screeching halt when he turned the page to a large photo of Johanna holding Kate. At that moment Lily leaned forward in her mother's lap and slapped the picture. "Nana!" she pronounced happily.

"What?"

"How did…"

"Have you been teaching her?"

All sprung from the three adults at once. Lily paid them no mind, just jabbering and once again happily proclaiming, "Nana!"

"Kate," Rick explained, "I haven't been saying 'Nana', I've been saying 'Gramma' like we did with Alexis till she shortened it to 'Gram'"

"So have I. Or 'Grandmama' since that was what I called Dad's mom." Kate looked at her dad, intending to ask him. His expression surprised her.

Jim for his part looked as though he had seen a ghost, his face going white, eyes wide.

"Dad? Are you alright?" Kate asked with concern, dropping her had to his wrist.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a shock, you know? Hearing her say that."

"Jim, why would that be such a shock? She has started saying a few things," Rick asked, also concerned for Kate's dad.

"It's just something Jo said, oh, _years_ ago. We were having this conversation about grand kids after a friend at the office had his first. She said she didn't want to be called 'grandmother'. That she had always been partial to 'Nana'. Said that was what she wanted to be called if Katie ever had kids." Jim pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his eyes. "Looks like she got her wish," he finished with a watery smile.

 **A.N. -Yeah, I know. Sappy. Not my best work, but had to get that bunny out of my brain!**


End file.
